Abdul Rahim Muslimdost
Abdul Rahim Muslimdost (Urdu: عبد الرحیم مسلم دوست) is a Pakistani journalist and jewellerSketches of Guantanamo Detainees-Part I, WTOP, March 15, 2006 who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 561. Muslimdost and his brother were captured on November 17, 2001, and later released on 17 April 2005 with no charges held against him.Prisoner profile from cageprisoners.comReturn my work, says Guantánamo poet, Guardian Unlimited, April 3, 2006 He has been noted for his poetry still detained by the American government and the lengths he went through to record it, ranging from scratching with a spoon onto polystyrene teacups to using rubbery pens, and has received much esteem in this regard. His account on his stay at Guantanamo, The Broken Chains, is currently being translated into English. According to the Associated Press the allegations against Muslimdost, in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal, he was a member of an Islamic militant group, and served as a contact between that group and Al Qaeda. Muslimdost acknowledged being a member of the militant group, but said he joined long ago, during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Muslimdost's brother was also a journalist; was also a held in extrajudicial detention in Guantanamo; was also released by the Americans following his Tribunal. Their presence in Guantanamo was discussed in the press prior the Department of Defense released the official list of detainee identities. }} Combatant Status Review Tribunal s were held in a trailer the size of a large RV. The captive sat with his hands cuffed and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor.Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004 Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed. ]] Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct competent tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status. Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants -- rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant. Summary of Evidence memo A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Abdul Rahim Muslimdost's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 29 September 2004. The memo listed the following allegations against him: (JDQ). :#Jamyat-u-Dawa-al-Quarani (JDQ) conducted training with several types of weapons in the Abdullah Abu Masood camp. :#The JDQ is a militant religious school which trains students in military camps as well as classrooms. The JDQ has a militant wing and an assassination wing. :#The detainee reportedly was an Al Qaeda point of contact in Herat, Afghanistan. }} Transcript Muslimdost chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. | title=Summarized Statement | date=date redacted | pages=pages 1–16 | author=OARDEC | publisher=United States Department of Defense | accessdate=2008-04-18 }} On March 3, 2006, in response to a court order from Jed Rakoff the Department of Defense published a sixteen page summarized transcript from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. Determined not to have been an Enemy Combatant Abdul Rahim Muslimdost was one of the 38 captives the Bush Presidency determined had not been enemy combatants after all. The Department of Defense refers to these men as No Longer Enemy Combatants. Abdul Rahim Muslimdost was freed on April 20, 2005 with sixteen other Afghans whose Tribunals had determined they were not enemy combatants. The Associated Press reported that their release ceremony was addressed by Afghan Chief Justice Fazl Hadi Shinwari. Carlotta Gall of the New York Times reported that the Chief Justice encouraged the men to regard their detention as something sent from God. The reports stated that the Chief Justice warned the cleared men that a candid description of their detention could damage the chances of other Afghan captives to be released. : Abdul Rahim Muslimdost was one of the three captives who chose to address the Press. Carlotta Gall described him as openly disagreeing with the Chief Justice as to whether any Afghans should have been sent to Guantanamo: : Both reports quoted Chief Justice Fazil Hadi Shinwari distinguishing three categories of captives: : September 2006 arrest On September 30, 2006 the Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that Muslimdost had been arrested by Pakistani officials.Pakistan arrests freed Guantanamo Afghan scholar, Xinhua, September 30, 2006 The article quotes Muslimdost's brother, who linked the arrest to criticisms of the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate's role in the capture of Guantanamo detainees. Muslimdost's brother said he was arrested while leaving his Mosque. Local Peshawar Police Superintendent Iftikhar Khan denied any knowledge of Muslimdost's arrest. But he acknowledged Inter-Services Intelligence officials may have executed a covert arrest. See also * Poems From Guantánamo References External links *VIDEO: ANDREW MOTION READS POEMS FROM GUANTÁNAMO *In a Jail in Cuba Beat the Heart of a Poet: Afghan, Now Freed by U.S., Scribbled on Paper Cups but Never Stopped Writing, Washington Post, April 24, 2005 *Ex-inmates share Guantanamo ordeal, BBC, May 2, 2005 *Dismay at US Koran 'desecration', BBC, May 8, 2005 *Writing poetry was the balm that kept Guantanamo prisoners from going mad: Former inmates say they wrote thousands of lines, San Francisco Chronicle, July 17, 2005 Category:Pakistani extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Category:Pakistani people Category:Guantanamo detainees known to have been released Category:Living people Category:Afghan poets Category:Exonerated terrorism suspects